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Thursday, 20 February 2014

Runners, I Love You

About a third of the way through my latest 10k race, a
familiar blue-topped runner came up beside me for the third time. But rather
than overtaking me, running out of steam and dropping back again, she decided
to join my steady pace. Although I’ll never know her name or what she does for
a living, we silently supported each other during the rest of the race,
side-by-side tackling each mile.

A little further on, we passed a guy who had just begun to
walk. “Come on”, I said, motioning for him to join our mini run club.
Reluctantly, he began to trot again and easily matched our speed. I pointed to
the closest landmark and suggested we aim for that, then the next one, then the
next, before we were only a few kilometres away from the finish line and he’d
not walked another step.

By the end, after another runner had joined our growing
group of support, a wheelchair racer whizzed by declaring he expected PBs from
us all. This request convinced me to break off from our team, speed up for the
last kilometre and collect a half-decent time.

I arrived at the race alone, yet received and shared the
same amount of support I’d get if running with friends. Without these
similar-minded strangers, the race would’ve been a little lonely and a lot
harder to complete.

But the support doesn’t stop on the course.
Every Saturday morning my alarm goes off and (after hitting snooze thrice) I
reach for my phone and scroll through hundreds of tweets from runners on their
way to Parkrun, halfway through big training mileage or digesting their
porridge before lacing up. These little snippets give me the push I need to
grab my lycra. It’s hard to take that first step outside, especially when it’s
cold and dark and wet, but it’s also difficult to not get inspired and
motivated by others making the effort.

Ahh this is super cute. I love runners too, from the hill runners who encourage me up the hill, to the random man I've accidentally made friends with because we clearly run the same training route (went from a nod, to a wave, to a hello, and now we are on 'how are you?' terms ha ha!).